Ascended Heroes chase cards: what they’re worth and which to grade

Ascended Heroes is a big set with a short list of cards that matter for money. Out of 295 cards, nine sold for more than $95 raw on 25 October 2026, and the gap from the top card to the tenth is about ten to one. This guide ranks those cards by what they sell for today, shows what each is worth in a PSA 9 and 10, and works out which pulls are worth sending to a grader once fees and postage come off.

What is Pokémon Ascended Heroes?

Ascended Heroes is a special expansion in the Pokémon TCG’s Mega Evolution series, released in English on 30 January 2026. It has 217 cards in the main set plus 78 secret rares numbered 218 to 295, so every chase card is numbered past 217.

Pokémon’s product page lists no booster box for the set, so packs come from Elite Trainer Boxes, tins, bundles and collection boxes. The set mixes Mega Evolution Pokémon ex with Trainer’s Pokémon such as Team Rocket’s Mewtwo, N’s Zoroark and Lillie’s Clefairy, and Pokémon describes more than 30 cards with special illustrations. If the star symbols next to the card numbers are new to you, the rarity symbols guide explains each one.

What are the Ascended Heroes chase cards?

Ranked by TCGplayer market price for raw, near mint copies, the ten most valuable cards are eight Special Illustration Rares and two gold Mega Hyper Rares. Mega Gengar ex leads, and two different Pikachu ex cards sit in the top four.

Two things stand out. Mega Dragonite ex is the set’s cover Pokémon, yet its Special Illustration Rare sells for about 60% of the Gengar. And the gold cards rank lower than you might expect: the Mega Charizard Y ex Hyper Rare is fifth raw, well behind three Special Illustration Rares. As you’ll see below, that changes completely once the cards are graded.

What about the rest of the secret rares?

Below the top ten, prices fall fast. The remaining Special Illustration Rares, such as Mega Meganium ex 272 ($62.60) and Steven’s Metagross ex 289 ($57.68), sold for about $16 to $63 on 25 October. The best Illustration Rare was Psyduck 226 at $42.77, and the Mega Attack Rare of Mega Gengar ex, 269, was $30.79. Those are nice pulls to keep, but at those prices a grading fee eats most of the card.

How much are Ascended Heroes cards worth graded?

A PSA 10 of the top cards sells for about two times raw, and a PSA 9 sells for roughly the raw price or less. The exceptions are the gold Mega Hyper Rares, where a PSA 10 sells for five to eight times a raw copy.

This is the usual modern pattern. So many copies come out of packs clean that buyers pay up only for the top grade, and a PSA 9 is often worth about what you’d get selling the card raw. The PSA 9 vs PSA 10 guide explains why that gap is so wide on new sets. The gold cards break the pattern, and the population report shows why.

How many Ascended Heroes cards get a PSA 10?

For the Special Illustration Rares, a little over half to about two thirds of the copies PSA has graded came back 10. For the two gold Mega Hyper Rares, fewer than one in five did.

Gold cards are unforgiving. The whole face is textured gold foil, so a light scratch, a print line or a nick on the gold border shows up in a way that a busy illustration hides. That scarcity of 10s is exactly why a PSA 10 Charizard Y sells for about $2,000 while a PSA 9 sells for $325, close to raw.

Which Ascended Heroes cards are worth grading?

Grade Mega Gengar ex 284 and Pikachu ex 276 if they’re clean, and treat the two gold cards as a bet on a 10. Below about $200 raw, most of these cards lose money once you pay PSA and postage, even when they come back 10.

The fee is set by what the card is worth after grading, not before. Each PSA tier has a maximum insured value, so a Gengar that would sell for $1,475 as a 10 goes in Priority, and a Charizard Y that would sell for $2,000 goes in Express.

Here’s the sum for a clean Mega Gengar ex. Priority is $79.99 and we assume about $40 of shipping both ways, so grading costs about $120. eBay takes 13.25% plus $0.40 on each trading card sale. Selling raw at $739 nets about $641. The odds below are an example for a well-centered copy, not PSA figures.

That beats the $641 raw sale by about $94 on average, but every 9 leaves you about $166 worse off than selling raw. If every miss is a 9, you need roughly a one in four chance of a 10 to break even. The full method, with the fee traps, is in is it worth grading Pokémon cards.

Run the same sum on the other cards, at the right PSA tier and the same $40 of shipping, and you get the chance of a 10 each one needs to beat a raw sale, assuming a miss is a 9:

• Pikachu ex 276: grade it. PSA 9s have recently sold at or above the raw price, so a clean copy has little to lose.
• Mega Gengar ex 284: about 24%. A clean, centered copy clears that comfortably.
• Mega Charizard Y ex 294: about 12%, at Express. Only 20% of graded copies got a 10, so send it only if the gold face is spotless.
• Mega Dragonite ex 295: about 11%. Same story as the Charizard: a cheap bet with a long shot.
• Mega Dragonite ex 290: about 37%. Worth it for a copy with sharp corners and good centering.
• Pikachu ex 277: about 43%. Borderline; grade only a copy you’d bet is a 10.
• Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex 281: about 63%. Barely pays even when things go well. Sell raw or keep it.
• N’s Zoroark ex and Lillie’s Clefairy ex: a 10 barely covers the fee and postage. Keep them raw.

Should I grade my Ascended Heroes pull?

Only after you’ve checked it under a bright light, front and back. A PSA 10 needs front centering of 55/45 or better and 75/25 on the back, and no visible whitening, scratches or print lines.

1. 1Sleeve it straight from the pack. Most chase-card damage happens in the first minute, sliding across a table or into a binder.
2. 2Measure the centering. Compare the left and right borders, then top and bottom. On a full-art card the border is thin, so a small shift is a big percentage. The centering guide shows how to measure it.
3. 3Check the back corners and edges. White specks on the dark blue back are the most common reason a modern card misses a 10.
4. 4Tilt the face under one light. Look for print lines, dents and scratches. On the gold cards, check the whole face, not only the border.
5. 5Run the sum. If the card passes, price it raw, at 9 and at 10, and work out the break-even as above. If it doesn’t, sell or keep it raw.

Be honest at step two. Many pulls from a fresh box are off-center enough to rule out a 10 before you look at anything else. The condition guide shows what each kind of wear looks like.

Should you grade Ascended Heroes with PSA, CGC or someone else?

For the top cards, PSA usually pays the most. On 25 October 2026 TCG Charts showed a CGC 10 Mega Gengar ex at $935 and a TAG 10 at $1,575, against $1,475 for a PSA 10.

So CGC is cheaper to grade with, but its 10 sold for about $540 less than PSA’s on the top card. TAG’s price was close to PSA’s. For cards around $100 raw, the cheaper grader can make sense if you want the card slabbed for your own collection. The best grading company guide compares fees and resale side by side.

So, which Ascended Heroes cards should you chase?

If you’re opening for value, the cards that matter are Mega Gengar ex 284, Pikachu ex 276 and Mega Dragonite ex 290, plus the two gold Megas for their PSA 10 upside. If you pull one, sleeve it, check it hard and run the sum before you pay a fee. Everything else is a binder card, and that’s fine. Prices for new sets move fast, so check the sold prices again before you sell or submit.